Miniature soccer goal

ABSTRACT

A miniature soccer goal has a frame including a front lateral tube, left and right upright tubes attached onto the left and right sides of the front lateral tube, left and right side tubes each having a front end attached at lower end of the left and right upright tubes, respectively, and a back end attached to a back lateral tube. Each of the front and back lateral tubes, and the left and right uprights and the left and right side tubes has a net slot leading into an internal channel. The internal channel may be formed by an arc section and side walls. A net is supported on the frame with edges of the net captive in the channels of the tubes. The frame has left and right net tubes attached to left and right back corners of the net and optionally applying tension to the net.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Many different types of soccer goals have been used for different gameplay, from children's leagues up to professional team competitions. Thegoal typically has a net supported on a rigid frame made of metal orplastic tubes. Small size goals have been provided for play by smallchildren. Generally, these types of children's goals are similar to thelarger goals, but made proportionally smaller. While these types ofgoals have been used with varying degrees of success, improvements ingoal design remain to be achieved.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A miniature soccer goal has a frame including a front lateral tube, leftand right upright tubes attached onto the left and right sides of thefront lateral tube, left and right side tubes each having a front endattached at lower end of the left and right upright tubes, respectively,and a back end attached to a back lateral tube. Each of the front andback lateral tubes, and the left and right upright tubes and the leftand right side tubes has a net slot leading into an internal channel.The internal channel may be formed by an arc section and side walls. Anet is supported on the frame with edges of the net captive in thechannels of the tubes. The frame has left and right net tubes attachedto left and right back corners of the net holding up the back of the netand optionally applying tension to the net.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a miniature soccer goal.

FIG. 2 is a left side perspective view of the frame of the soccer goalshown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3. is a back perspective view of the frame shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a left side exploded perspective view of the frame shown inFIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 5 is a section view taken along a lateral centerline of the frame.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged section view of the back lateral tube and cornerfitting of the frame.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged exploded perspective view of the upright fittingshown in FIGS. 1-3.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged perspective view of the net ring shown in FIGS.1-5.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged perspective view of the corner fitting shown inFIG. 6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As shown in FIGS. 1-3, a miniature soccer goal 10 has a net 16 supportedon a frame 14. The goal 10 may be compact so that it may be used byyoung children, indoors or outdoors. For example, the goal 10 may have awidth WW of 50-60 cm and a height HH of 30-40 cm high. The frame 14 maybe made of hollow plastic tubes, such as extruded PVC. FIG. 1 shows astandard soccer ball 12 having a diameter of about 22 cm to indicate arelative size of one example of the goal 10.

As shown in FIGS. 2-4, the frame 14 may be symmetrical about its lateralcenterline CC in FIG. 2, with the left side of the frame a mirror imageof the right side of the frame. For purpose of explanation, the leftside of the frame 14 is primarily described below, with theunderstanding that this description applies to the right side of theframe as well. The left side components of the frame are the same as, ormirror images of, the right side components.

A the lower end of a left upright tube 22 is releasably attached onto aleft upright fitting 28. The upper end of the left upright tube 22 issimilarly releasably attached to a vertical leg of a left elbow fitting,with the left end of a front lateral tube 24 attached to a horizontalleg of the left elbow 26 fitting.

A left side tube 30 is releasably attached to the left upright fitting28 and to a left corner fitting 34. The left end of a back lateral tube32 is also attached to the left corner fitting 34, perpendicular to theleft side tube 30. A left net tube 36 extends up from the left cornerfitting 34, with a net ring 38 at the top end of the left net tube 36.

As shown in FIGS. 3-5, a net slot 42 is provided at the back surface ofthe left and right upright tubes 22 and the back surface of the frontlateral tube 24. A net slot 42 is also provided on the top surface ofthe left and right side tubes 30 and the back lateral tube 32. As shownin FIG. 6, the net slot 42 may be formed via sidewalls 44 of the tubes22, 24, 30 and 32 projecting radially inwardly from the outercylindrical surface of the tube to form an inner rail 40. In the exampleshown, the net slot 42 is formed between spaced apart side walls 44which join an arc section 48, with a channel 46 formed in the arcsection 48. Referring momentarily to FIGS. 6 and 9, the tubes and thearc section 48 may be round (except at the gap formed at the net slot42), with the arc section 48 offset from the center of the tube,creating a crescent shaped space 64 between them. The tubes and the arcsection may alternatively have other non-round geometric shapes.

Referring to FIG. 7, the upright fitting 28 may have an upright orinsert section 52 having a upright rail slot 54, and a side tube orinsert section 56 having a side rail slot 58. The upright rail slot 54allows the inner rail 40 in the upright tube 22 to slide down over theupright section 52 of the upright fitting 28. Similarly, the side railslot 58 allows the side tube to slide over the side tube section 56 ofthe fitting 28, during assembly of the frame.

The fittings 26, 28 and 34 may be cast or molded from PVC or otherplastic. The tubes 22, 24, 30 and 32 may have a uniform cross section,i.e., the cross section does not change along the length of the tube. Asshown in FIG. 7, the fittings 28 and 34 may have a receptacle rail 60dimensioned to slide into the channel 46 of the inner rail 40 in thetubes.

The edges of the net 16 have knots or a braid 18 which is thicker thanthe width of the net slot 42. During initial assembly of the goal 10,the knots or braid 18 at the edges of the net installed into the tubes22, 24, 30 and 32 by sliding them in through the open end of the tube.The edges of the net 16 are captive in the tubes as the knots or braid18 cannot pass through or pull out of the net slots 42.

The goal may be provided from the factory dismantled, with the tubesdetached from the fittings 26, 28 and 34, with the edges of the netoptionally already threaded into the tubes. The goal 10 may then bequickly and easily set up by attaching the tubes to the fittings. Thetubes and fittings may be manufactured so that they fit together vianominal hand force, and with friction forces holding the tubes onto thefittings in ordinary use. One or more fasteners may optionally be usedto more securely or more permanently hold the fittings and tubestogether. Of course, one or more of the tubes and fittings mayoptionally be permanently attached to each other, or formed together asa single piece.

The tubes 22 and 24 may have a larger diameter than the tubes 30 and 32.For example, the tubes 22 and 24 may have an outside diameter of 45 to55 mm while the tubes 30 and 32 have a diameter of 20 to 30 mm, eachoptionally with a wall thickness of 0.7 to 2 mm. Alternatively, all ofthe tubes may have the same diameter.

The net tubes 36 may be flexible and set at an outward and backwardangle so as to exert tension on the net 16, as shown in FIG. 1. The net16 may then be held on the frame 14 with generally flat and parallelvertical left and right side panels perpendicular to a back net paneland to a top net panel, forming a four-sided rectangular enclosure.

Any of the tubes, and especially tubes 22 and 24 may have ballastcompartments for holding sand or water, to better stabilize the goal 10.Fill ports 62 having cap seals may be used for this purpose. Althoughdescribed as a soccer goal, the goal 10 may of course be used for othersports as well, in miniature form, or scaled up to full size for use byadult players.

Thus, a novel soccer goal has been shown and described. Various changesand substitutions may of course be made without departing from thespirit and scope of the invention. The invention, therefore, should notbe limited, except to the following claims and their equivalents.

1. A miniature soccer goal, comprising: a frame including a frontlateral tube, a left upright tube attached to a left side of the frontlateral tube, a right upright tube attached to a right side of the frontlateral tube, a left side tube having a front end attached at a lowerend of the left upright tube and a back end attached to a back lateraltube, a right side tube having a front end attached at a lower end ofthe right upright tube and a back end attached to the back lateral tube,wherein each of the front lateral tube, the back lateral tube, the leftupright tube, the right upright tube, the left side tube, and the rightside tube include a net slot leading into an internal channel; a netsupported by the frame, the net having edges including knots thickerthan a width of the net slot, the knots retained in each of the internalchannels such that the edges of the net are slidable within the netslot; and the frame further including left and right net tubessupporting left and right sides of the net. 2-3. (canceled)
 4. Theminiature soccer goal of claim 1 wherein each of the front lateral tube,the back lateral tube, the left upright tube, the right upright tube,the left side tube, and the right side tube are rigid, and each of theleft and right net tubes are flexible and exert tension on the net. 5.The miniature soccer goal of claim 1 wherein each of the net slots isformed by an arc section and side walls forming a rail, the left sidetube and the left upright tube are releaseably attached to a leftupright fitting, the rail of the left upright tube projects through anupright rail slot in the left upright fitting, and the rail of the leftside tube projects through side rail slot in the left upright fitting.6. The miniature soccer goal of claim 1 wherein the left upright tube,the right upright tube, and the front lateral tube have a diameter D1,and the left side tube and the right side tube have a diameter D2, andwherein D1 is at least 1.5 times D2.
 7. The miniature soccer goal ofclaim 1 wherein the net slots of the left upright tube, the rightupright tube, and the front lateral tube face a back end of the frame,and the net slots of the left side tube, the right side tube, and theback lateral tube face up toward a top of the net.
 8. The miniaturesoccer goal of claim 1 wherein each of the left upright tube, the rightupright tube, the lateral tube, the left side tube, the right side tube,and the back lateral tube has a uniform cross section.
 9. The miniaturesoccer goal of claim 1 wherein the frame holds the net into a suspendedconfiguration, and wherein the net has left and right side panelsperpendicular to a back panel and a top panel.
 10. The miniature soccergoal of claim 1 further including one or more ballast compartments in atleast one of the left upright tube, the right upright tube, the leftside tube, and the right side tube.
 11. The miniature soccer goal ofclaim 1 wherein the net slot is formed by an arc section and side walls.12. A miniature goal, comprising: a left upright tube having a lower endreleasably attached onto an upright insert section of a left uprightfitting; a left side tube having a front end releasably attached onto aside insert section of the left upright fitting, perpendicular to theupright insert section, and with a back end of the left side tubereleasably attached to a corner insert section of a left corner fitting;a back lateral tube having a left end releasably attached to a backinsert section of the left corner fitting, perpendicular to the cornerinsert section; a left net tube attached to the left corner fitting; aright upright tube having a lower end releasably attached onto anupright insert section of a right upright fitting; a right side tubehaving a front end releasably attached onto a side insert section of theright upright fitting, perpendicular to the upright insert section, andwith a back end of the right side tube releasably attached to a cornerinsert section of a right corner fitting; a right end of the backlateral tube releasably attached to a back insert section of the rightcorner fitting, perpendicular to the corner insert section; a right nettube attached to the right corner fitting; the left upright tube, theright upright tube, and the front lateral tube each including a firstinner rail formed by a first arc section and first side walls, with afirst net slot disposed between the first sidewalls and a first channelin the first arc section; the left side tube, the right side tube, andthe back lateral tube each including a second inner rail formed by asecond arc section and second side walls, with a second net slotdisposed between the second sidewalls and a second channel in the secondarc section; a net supported by the frame, the net having front edgesincluding knots thicker than a width of the first net slots and slidablyretained within the first net slots of the left upright tube, the rightupright tube, and the front lateral tube, and the net having lower edgesincluding knots thicker than a width of the second net slots andslidably retained within the second net slots of the left side tube, theright side tube, and the back lateral tube.
 13. The miniature goal ofclaim 12 wherein the first slot is between 2 and 8 millimeters wide. 14.The goal of claim 12 wherein the first arc section is offset from acenterline of the upright tube.
 15. The miniature soccer goal of claim 6wherein a diameter of the back lateral tube is substantially equal toD2.